None Why make a sequel to Ghost Rider (Johnston, 2007)? The property had only been fitfully popular over its nearly 40-year history, and never had same the staying power as most of Marvel's stable of characters. The first film, starring Nicholas Cage as Johnny Blaze/Ghost Rider, was moderately successful, but was not particularly well-liked by critics or audiences. Since its release, the fifth ongoing Ghost Rider series was cancelled with Ghost Rider Vol. 5 #35 (July 2009) due to low sales. Sur... Tags: Europe, Feature, Music, Hollywood, Justice, Fantasy, Turkey, Action, Thriller, Romania, Idris Elba, Dan Brown, Superheroes, Warner Bros, Sony Pictures, Johnson

None The line on Townes Van Zandt has been consistent since even the early days of his career: a master songwriter and gifted guitarist with a haunted streak that was often more self-destructive than helpful. A man with few memories of his own childhood due to electroshock treatments, Van Zandt was nevertheless able to write characters with no shortage of backstory and authenticity. To many, he stands as a gone-too-soon enigma, possessed of a talent that seemed to burn away at him as much as hi... Tags: Feature, Music, Texas, Country, America, Book Review, Northern Ireland, Willie Nelson, Poppy, Biography, Blues, Vietnam, Folk, Tomato, Townes Van Zandt, Guy

None The '60s and '70s signal watershed decades for the growth of alternative media in the West. The emergence of offset printing during the '60s allowed hundreds, if not thousands, of publications to bloom since it only required a typewriter, some glue, a few volunteers, and a vision. Pirate radio stations also proliferated across the United States, Europe, and Latin America during this time.
Perhaps nothing captured the excitement and utopian possibilities of the youth revolt like the video ... Tags: Feature, Music, Hollywood, Drama, California, New York City, US, America, Canada, United States, Charles, Stephen, Latin America, Ucla, Yale University, Hess

None One of the joys and pitfalls of modernism was its self-conscious assessment of the accepted traditions and norms of its social activities and its utter faith that those traditions could be uprooted and reshaped to suit bold new visions of future endeavor. Of course, those visions were often in conflict—hence, the two world wars on the one hand and the proliferation of "isms" in art, on the other. This infatuation with upheaval (as Karl Marx once put it, the awareness that "all that is soli... Tags: Feature, Music, Japan, New York, Arts, Russia, New York City, Paris, Pablo Picasso, Karl Marx, Madrid, Futurism, Zurich, Hudson, Modernism, Vladimir Lenin

In the late '80s, they rode the cresting wave of the hip-hop duos. Likely born from the synergistic energy produced by seminal acts like Eric B. & Rakim, Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud were one of many rap duos competing for a place at the DJs turntable. They hit one nifty cut out of the park with the snappishly urban strut of "Do the James", a jam that tipped its hat to the legendary James Brown as well as the hyperkinetic basement hip-hop parties that were especially popular in the Bronx at th... Tags: Google, Feature, Music, Interview, California, Nas, Rap, James Brown, Mtv, Hip-hop, Queens, Eminem, Manhattan, Bronx, James, 1980s

None In the past decade or so, the world of work has featured large on American TV shows and in movies — whether they're satirizing Silicon Valley, the advertising industry of the 1950s, or the White House. In its own way, the workplace novel has also been an enduring sub-genre. But, typically, mainstream narratives have been dominated by white male writers.
Within this sub-genre, we have even more categories: the campus novel, the legal caper, the high finance thriller, the fashion chronicles... Tags: Asia, Feature, Music, Japan, White House, Berlin, US, America, New York Times, Dubai, Tokyo, Silicon Valley, Short Stories, Maggie, Baz, Manila

None Debito Arudou (formerly David Aldwinckle) was born in California and raised in Geneva, New York. After spending a long period of residence in Japan, he became a citizen of that country. Frequently engaged in outspoken activism on the issues of anti-foreigner discrimination and racism in Japanese society, Arudou has written extensively on these topics for various publications, including his regular contributions to the Japan Times newspaper for over 15 years as well his web site Debito.... Tags: Feature, Music, Japan, Supreme Court, Interview, California, France, US, America, Hillary Clinton, United States, Tokyo, States, Republican Party, Vietnam, Johnson